AI hardware has been in the news this week, with the Apple pin report getting most of the headlines. But there was also a new claim about OpenAI’s upcoming AI hardware device under iO branding.
It’s more than eight months since former Apple design chief Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman teased it, and we’re still no closer to knowing its form factor. The latest report doesn’t exactly help, appearing to contradict what the pair have already said …
Jony Ive’s iO device
In May of last year, Ive and Altman released what I described at the time as a strong candidate for most frustrating video of the year. The pair promised a completely new concept in AI hardware, but gave very little clue as to what that might be.
“Jony recently gave me one of the prototypes of the device for the first time to take home, and I’ve been able to live with it—and I think it is the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen.”
Mostly, all I was able to piece together from the various clues was what it is (probably) not.
The only form factor that has so far made any sense to me is smart glasses, but Altman has specifically said that io is not a pair of glasses, while both have also made it clear that it’s not a phone. The pair strongly imply it’s a form factor we haven’t yet seen, which would seem to rule out a badge, a smartwatch, a smart ring, or in-ear headphones.
It was also made clear that it either doesn’t have a screen or at least that the screen is not the main way we interact with it. It was a 9to5Mac reader who suggested that it might be a pen, and that theory did strike me as having a lot going for it.
AirPods confusion
Things got a little more confusing this week when a Weibo blogger suggested that it would comprise “two pill-shaped gadgets that rest behind the ear,” and that it was intended to be used instead of AirPods.
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